Panel Discussion on Reducing Road Traffic Injuries in India

We are hosting a panel discussion on Reducing Road Traffic Injury in India, at the India Habitat Center, New Delhi on 15th December 2017. A wide range of experts from multilateral development banks, United Nations Agencies, bilateral organizations, non-governmental organizations, civil society, as well as representatives from the state and central ministries and private companies will participate.

India has the highest number of road traffic crash deaths and injuries in the world, costing Rs 4.07 lakh crores, accounting for approximately 3% of the country’s GDP.

In 2015, 1.46 lakh people died on Indian roads, according to the World Health Organisation.

Sustainable Development Target 3.6 sets an ambitious goal of halving the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes, by 2020. Whilst there is a commitment by the government to attain this target, the latest National Crime Bureau reports an increase of 5% in road traffic fatalities between 2014- 15.

In the past decade several initiatives have been undertaken by the government, civil society organizations, industries, and other road safety partners in India. Some of these have addressed data improvement (a new accident report form), vehicle standards, road infrastructure upgrading, road user behaviour as well as the post-crash response. The passing of Good Samaritan law in India is an important step and can bring road safety policy in the country in line with global good practices.

At the George Institute for Global Health we have been designing, developing, and generating a body of evidence around road traffic injury prevention and safety by implementing high quality and influential programs in Australia and South East Asian countries, which can be scaled up at sub-national and national levels in India.

The format would be a high level inaugural session followed by panel discussions on the Injury Surveillance Systems in India- opportunities and challenges, developing trauma care systems in India and Safe systems and beyond with an aim to support the roadmap that the Government of India is envisaging to reduce fatalities and injuries due to road traffic crashes.

If India were to take a multi-pronged approach to address these gaps and improve safety standards, it could see a significant drop in its road injury and deaths, contributing to the Sustainable Development Goal, target 3.6 of reducing road traffic injury deaths by 50% by 2020.